micing an upright piano...suggestions?

  • Thread starter Thread starter howster
  • Start date Start date
H

howster

New member
my keyboard players son has to make a demo tape for school and I need to find out if there are any better ideas than I have about it ...I figured I'd put two sm57's over the open lid angled down and towards each other...waddaya think?
 
I got really good results one time by micing the back of the piano..justa thought.
 
ametth said:
I got really good results one time by micing the back of the piano..justa thought.

Yeah, get that thing away from the wall!!
We used an Upright, and we used 3 mics on it:

1. We mounted a PZM to the lid, and then shut the lid.

2. Mic'ed it with a stereo split from out in the room, and mixed the pair together.

You'll have to play with the mix alittle to get it sounding how you want, but it worked great for us.

Of course, my singers mom had a shit fit that we put a screw in the underside of the Upright's Lid!
Ooops!!!!
of course, once it was in-we could just slid the PZM's screw hole-slot on and give the screw a twist and it was mounted.

Tim
 
howster-

it kinda depends on what kind of recording you're doing. Is it solo piano? That's the most critical and diffucult to do well, but given whatever circumstances are given, hopefully you'll get good resutls.

If you're sure you're gonna use that particular upright, then yeah. Pull it away from the wall and let the kid get used to playing it in that position for a few days. It'll sound different than he's used to. Usually for live situations, you would mic the back like ametth said. You actually get more sound there than you do from above the lid (and it's a clearer sound). The back of the piano is actually the soundboard.

IF the kid is going to play without music, you also have the option of taking off the front of the piano and micing from that side.

There are SO MANY variable when dealing with a piano. You'll have to try a few different things to really know what's best for your situation.

If it's classical piano AND you can take off the front cover, I'd start out by putting the mics above his shoulders. You'll have to experiment with distance depending on the room and sound you want, but generally you don't want to get too close for classical piano.
 
thank you all greatly for your ideas.I'll give them a try and see what they like the best... I do have a PZM to use so I can give that a shot(although I think I'll use double sided tape to secure it so I don't piss anyone off)
 
Back
Top